Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I know a lot of people - myself included - who never bothered to check out FFXI due to the presence of gender locked playable races. To me, it just felt like a tacky concept and still does to this day.

Sounds like a very superficial way to look at a videogame. As if you dont care about the game itself.

--I thought you already dismissed those as humans with bunny ears and weird feet?
--Not sure what the last part is all about... people don't have to like them.

--When did I dismiss them? They are in fact a Human-looking race with Bunny ears and Weird feet, so Whats your point? Do you just not have an answer to my question about why people want them so badly in FFXIV? If variety alone isn't a reason to put something in, then why do people want them so badly?
--Of course you don't, it wasn't even aimed at you.

[Theodric]

Sounds like a very superficial way to look at a videogame. As if you dont care about the game itself.

You're free to believe that. I don't.

FFXI intrigued me on many fronts, but lost out to WoW in the end when it came to maintaining my interest because it had more options that I liked in regards to playable races.

WoW has long since fallen into a bleak state that no longer appeals to me, so I invested in FFXIV as of 2.0 and beyond - and on some level, the presence of no gender locked playable races served as a major selling point. Since we received Xaela and Raen in full with no funny business, it was a reasonable expectation for any race that came afterwards to be the full package. Alas, it was not to be.

It's not enough to drive me away from the game, though I'm not going to pretend as it if's something to be given a free pass over. Others can do that. I'm not going to.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

You're free to believe that. I don't.

FFXI intrigued me on many fronts, but lost out to WoW in the end when it came to maintaining my interest because it had more options that I liked in regards to playable races.

WoW has long since fallen into a bleak state that no longer appeals to me, so I invested in FFXIV as of 2.0 and beyond - and on some level, the presence of no gender locked playable races served as a major selling point. Since we received Xaela and Raen in full with no funny business, it was a reasonable expectation for any race that came afterwards to be the full package. Alas, it was not to be.

It's not enough to drive me away from the game, though I'm not going to pretend as it if's something to be given a free pass over. Others can do that. I'm not going to.

Frankly, what ultimately turned me away (besides not having the ability to do online gaming at the time) is that I saw and was told by everyone I know that played the game that its a bigger time sink then WoW, that it take real world days to do things and travel. And when you have limited play hours and sessions (2-hours a week...strict school focused household) that is so much time not doing anything meaningful. I cant play a game like that. So gender is the least of my worries in a game. Character creation and customization is fun, but its not a driving factor of why Im going waste my life and money on a videogame.
So, Its still a very weird, superficial and funny reason to not play a game IMO, but Im not here to tell anybody what they can or can't do mate.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

How is it superficial? People play an mmoRPG(aka role playing game in case you didn’t know) to put themselves into the game. They want to play a race that they like. If an mmorpg doesn’t offer a race or said race is genderlocked, they may not be interested anymore because the first thing you do is make your character. It’s not superficial it’s a very common way people look at these types of games.

Its superficial because if you will avoid the game over a character creator and completely write it off over the character creator...thats pretty silly.
If you find you dont like the game and its not your style...thats one thing. But missing genders to me is not a reason. Its up to you what you want and look for, my personal opinion shouldn't influence that, but I still think its silly.

[Lauront]

Sounds like a very superficial way to look at a videogame. As if you dont care about the game itself.



--When did I dismiss them? They are in fact a Human-looking race with Bunny ears and Weird feet, so Whats your point? Do you just not have an answer to my question about why people want them so badly in FFXIV? If variety alone isn't a reason to put something in, then why do people want them so badly?
--Of course you don't, it wasn't even aimed at you.

You will note I said '"variety" alone' - meaning there has to be other factors in it to make it worthwhile besides just being different, which I believe were all there with Viera. I am not even saying they don't exist with Hrothgar - I just wish they had been closer to Ronso.

They could add many unique and distinctive things, that next to no one played, which while adding to the variety of the playable cast of races, added little actual value to the game. This is a very budget-constrained game, and we keep being reminded this by the devs. Thus, I don't consider variety intrinsically valuable - not when considered separately from the race's design and appeal (e.g. how smooth the animations are), and from a purely commercial POV, not when considered against the cost of adding a race.

In regards to female Viera, perhaps you did not mean it that way, but "just Humans with weird feet (If you keep the racial Gear) and Bunny Ears. Not a whole lot of Variety." certainly implies they don't add much to that existing cast of races in the way of variety, does it not?

Its superficial because if you will avoid the game over a character creator and completely write it off over the character creator...thats pretty silly.
If you find you dont like the game and its not your style...thats one thing. But missing genders to me is not a reason. Its up to you what you want and look for, my personal opinion shouldn't influence that, but I still think its silly.

If you don't like what it says about the game's design ethos, I don't think it's really that superficial.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

You will note I said '"variety" alone' - meaning there has to be other factors in it to make it worthwhile besides just being different, which I believe were all there with Viera. They could add many unique and distinctive things, that next to no one played, which while adding to the variety of the playable cast of races, added little actual value to the game. This is a very budget-constrained game, and we keep being reminded this by the devs. Thus, I don't consider variety intrinsically valuable - not when considered separately from the race's design and appeal (e.g. how smooth the animations are), and from a purely commercial POV, not when considered against the cost of adding a race.

In regards to female Viera, perhaps you did not mean it that way, but "just Humans with weird feet (If you keep the racial Gear) and Bunny Ears. Not a whole lot of Variety." certainly implies they don't add much to that existing cast of races in the way of variety, does it not?



If you don't like what it says about the game's design ethos, I don't think it's really that superficial.

So....Variety? And money?
You agree thats why people want them, but your taking on revenue to their value.

Nah, I meant that, They really don't add much in terms of Variety. Like its very small in terms of looking for something different when selecting a race. Every option till now is some variation of a Human-looking race, with just a few different features. Some ears and tails, horns and scales, bunny ears....even with those features, their base is still just another human.
Thats where my Guildwars 2 example of the Asura, and the Sylvari come in. Lets also tack on the Humans and the Charr.
As you can see, all 4 of those races are distinctively different. Variety.
Asura - Short Goblin/alien looking race
Humans - Default self explanatory
Sylvari - Tree People that are Human looking, but have different colored skin, and wooden features and stuff like branches and leaves for hair
Charr - A beast Race

That is far many options to chose from compared to FFXIV.

If you don't like what it says about the game's design ethos, I don't think it's really that superficial.

But your writing it off for the character Creator.
Not the games design.
It may be APART of the design, but your sidestepping everything else, over making a character, especially because of Gender.
Pretty Superficial, and frankly narrow